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Inside the White House’s Meeting With Top Republicans to Put Out the Ukraine Fire
Republican senators in Wednesday’s meeting will be a part of any impeachment trial, which would make them the jurors and Trump the defendant
If you were thinking impeachment might represent a change in the prevailing environment of hyperpartisanship in Washington, think again. The first morning after Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment inquiry announcement began with 12 of President Trump’s top Republican allies on Capitol Hill tromping over to the White House for an 8 a.m. peek at the “transcript” of President Trump’s call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy before it was made public — or provided to House Democrats.
Speaking with reporters, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the Republican chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, didn’t mince words about the purpose of the meeting: to get the president’s troops in marching formation.
“So we were all prepared,” said Johnson of the get-together. “It was just kind of giving those of us who, by and large, are sympathetic with what he’s been going through an opportunity to take a look at that initially, so that when we’re talking to you we can counter what, I suppose, Nancy Pelosi is talking about in the House.”
